Greenspan Shreds Any Remaining Credibility

by Steve

After endorsing three Bush tax cuts that have helped squander trillions of dollars in surplusses and going relatively mute as Bush has built in deficits for the next two decades, Alan Greenspan told his fawning minions at a speech yesterday in front of the Securities Industry Association yesterday that he is now concerned about the deficits. But to ensure that his credibility has finally hit bottom, he says that Congress and the White House need to address the problem not through tax increases, but through spending cuts.

Tell me Alan, how exactly would you come up with several hundred billion dollars of spending cuts, if you are against tax increases? You seem to be certain that the economy is coming out of its jobless recovery phase, and will supposedly therefore generate oodles and oodles of revenue like the supply-siders insist it will. Even if this revenue materializes, are you saying that the remaining existing gross inbalance between our tax receipts, which are their lowest in decades (as measured as a percentage of GDP, like the GOP likes to do now), and our spending must be addressed through spending cuts alone? If so, since much of the recent spending increases and resulting budget deficits came about due to Pentagon and national security spending, what would you cut, Sir Alan?

I guess that if you are against tax increases, and now feel that the deficit is such a problem, then we can go after the estimated $125-150 billion per year in corporate welfare and tax subsidies to deal with your concerns over the deficit, right?

Oh, I get it. Karl just handed you your speech, and you probably didn't have time to review it beforehand.